One book she tagged:
Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. I always fear reading novels in the prime of being hyped because it seems unfair; how can the book possibly live up? But Anthony Doerr cannot be praised enough. This is an enthralling, marvelous read—the kind of book you can’t put down, where you simultaneously need to know what happens yet dread having it end because its company has been so lovely. Radios, snails, museums, gemology, France, the sea; Doerr’s world is teeming with beauty, with life itself, a convergence of...[read on]About The Sixteenth of June, from the publisher:
A finely observed, wry social satire set in Philadelphia over the course of a single day, this soaring debut novel paints a moving portrait of a family at a turning point.Visit Maya Lang's website.
Leopold Portman, a young IT manager a few years out of college, dreams of settling down in Philly’s bucolic suburbs and starting a family with his fiancée, Nora. A talented singer in mourning for her mother, Nora has abandoned a promising opera career and wonders what her destiny holds. Her best friend, Stephen, Leopold’s brother, dithers in his seventh year ofgraduate school and privately questions Leo and Nora’s relationship. On June 16, 2004, the three are brought together—first for a funeral, then for an annual Bloomsday party. As the long-simmering tensions between them come to a head, they are forced to confront the choices of their pasts and their hopes for the future.
Clever, lyrical, and often hilarious, The Sixteenth of June is a feat of storytelling and a sharp depiction of modern American family life. It delves into the tensions and allegiances of friendships, the murky uncertainty of early adulthood, and the yearning to belong. This remarkable novel offers a nod to James Joyce's celebrated classic, Ulysses, and it is about the secrets we keep and the lengths we’ll go to for acceptance and love.
The Page 69 Test: The Sixteenth of June.
Writers Read: Maya Lang.
--Marshal Zeringue
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